The Gas Giant

by H. Badger

  The Gas Giant

  published in 2011 by

  Hardie Grant Egmont

  Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street

  Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia

  www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and copyright owner.

  A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia

  Text copyright © 2011 H. Badger

  Illustration and design copyright © 2011 Hardie Grant Egmont

  EISBN 9781742737133

  Cover illustration by D. Mackie

  Illustrated by D. Greulich

  Series design by S. Swingler

  Typeset by Ektavo

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Kip Kirby was standing in total darkness. He held his breath and watched as the door across the room slowly creaked open.

  Then…

  ‘SURPRISE!’ Kip shouted as the lights came on. Twelve other kids shouted with him, leaping out from hiding places all over the room.

  Kip’s best friend Jett jumped in surprise. Then, recovering, he looked around the room and grinned at his friends.

  It was Jett’s 12th birthday. His parents were throwing a surprise party in their family’s apartment, high on the 1,987th floor of the building.

  ‘Happy birthday!’ Kip said, walking over to Jett and handing him a present.

  ‘Thanks!’ Jett took the present and the wrapping paper automatically dissolved.

  ‘Intergalactic holographic walkie-talkies!’ yelled Jett.

  ‘Now we can still chat when I’m out on missions,’ said Kip.

  He knew it was a pretty cool present. Holographic walkie-talkies could be used anywhere in the entire universe. They beamed a 3D hologram of the person at the other end, so you could see and hear them.

  Jett’s other friends crowded around with their presents. After Jett had opened everything, his mum brought out his birthday cake. It was shaped like an Enforcerbot, a law enforcement robot. Jett was really into robots — the more high-tech, the better.

  Once everyone had sung ‘happy birthday’, Jett cut the cake. White fog drifted out from inside it.

  ‘Awesome,’ Kip said to Jett. ‘I love VapaCream!’

  VapaCream was a creamy filling that turned to gas when it was released from inside a cake. Kip, Jett and all their friends chased the delicious gas around the room, trying to catch it in their mouths.

  This party is awesome! Kip thought. Wish I got to hang out like this more often.

  Kip was busier than most kids. On top of school, he had an important job as a Space Scout. He and 49 other Space Scouts searched the Universe for a new Earth.

  It was the year 2354, and Earth’s population was huge. In fact, it was so huge that the planet was running out of vital supplies like water.

  The Space Scouts’ job was to find another Earth, quickly. The future of all humans depended on it.

  Kip let the last of the VapaCream drift into his mouth. Just then, the SpaceCuff on his wrist started vibrating. SpaceCuffs were powerful mini-computers that received messages, translated alien languages and played the latest games. Space Scouts depended on them during their missions.

  Kip’s stomach lurched. Space scouting had always been an important job. Now it sounded like it was critical.

  ‘Want some Supernova?’ Jett asked, coming over.

  Supernova was Kip’s all-time favourite drink. It was just like a normal fizzy drink except the bubbles were bigger than marbles, making it extra gassy.

  ‘Thanks,’ said Kip, gulping it down. ‘But then I gotta go. New mission!’

  ‘Do your party trick before you go!’ Jett begged.

  Kip really wasn’t in the mood, but it was his best friend’s birthday.

  Kip let out an almighty belch. Jett cracked up laughing.

  At that exact second, Jett’s mum walked by with a bowl of Jupiter Juice-flavoured lollies, and accidentally bumped Kip’s elbow. Supernova sloshed out of the bottle and onto Kip’s SpaceCuff. It seeped into every cranny and dried in a sticky blotch all over the screen.

  Uh-oh! Kip thought. That’s gotta be bad for the circuitry.

  ‘Oops,’ said Jett’s mum. ‘Sorry, Kip!’

  Kip told her it was OK, but inside he was worried. There wasn’t time for repairs. He had to get to the Intergalactic Hoverport. But there was an emergency SpaceCuff repair kit onboard MoNa, so maybe he’d be able to fix it on the way to his mission.

  ‘Gotta go,’ Kip said to Jett. ‘Thanks for the awesome party.’

  Kip knew his best friend was disappointed, but Jett just smiled and waved goodbye. He knew how important Kip’s job was.

  ‘Bring me back a souvenir!’ he said.

  Kip kept his mission gear with him at all times. He grabbed his new spaceboots from his backpack. They were electric-yellow Plan-It Suckers with retractable suction caps on the soles.

  Next, Kip threw on his spacesuit over his shorts and slid his new helmet onto his head. The helmet had been delivered the day before from WorldCorp. Kip had heard a rumour from the other Space Scouts that the new helmets weren’t very strong.

  Seems fine though, Kip shrugged, tapping the helmet. Anyway, it would just have to do. Kip had a planet to save!

  Kip blasted off from the roof of Jett’s building in a Universal Taxi (or UniTaxi for short). These self-piloting personal spacecraft were the perfect way to travel quickly within Earth’s atmosphere.

  Soon Kip reached the Intergalactic Hoverport, ten kilometres above Earth. All flights beyond Earth’s atmosphere departed from the Hoverport. Kip’s starship, MoNa 4000, was docked there between missions.

  MoNa was massive, and specially designed for extreme deep-space travel. She was shiny black with curved thrusters and a pointed nose, and was decked out with all the latest technology. The problem was, MoNa was also super bossy. She loved to remind Kip that he was way younger than the other Space Scouts.

  Sensing Kip’s UniTaxi approaching, MoNa’s landing-bay door slid open. As the UniTaxi flew towards the starship, MoNa’s colour seemed to flicker.

  ‘Did I just see that?’ Kip said to himself, shaking his head. It looked like MoNa had turned from black to pink then back again!

  The UniTaxi touched down inside MoNa’s landing bay. Kip jumped out and headed straight for MoNa’s main cabin. The air was breathable there, so Kip took off his helmet.

  ‘Kip! I am so glad you’re here,’ said Finbar, rushing over.

  Finbar was Kip’s second-in-command (or 2iC for short). Half-human and half-wolf, he lived aboard MoNa when he and Kip weren’t on missions.

  ‘MoNa’s been impossible since she was selected for the Flying Space Ninjas,’ Finbar continued in a whisper. MoNa could hear everything he and Kip said.

  ‘MoNa’s a Ninja?’ Kip asked. ‘As if!’

  That would explain why MoNa had changed colour earlier, though. Ninjas had a special coat of Chameleon Paint, which had colour-change particles. Their tricks looked extra spectacular when they changed colour in mid-air.

  To prove she really was a Ninja, MoNa spun into a triple upside-down corkscrew.

  ‘OK, OK,’ said Kip, picking himself up from the floor. ‘I don’t care what you do in your spare time. But when we’re on missions, I’m in charge.’

  ‘You should b
e downloading your mission brief,’ MoNa said snippily.

  Kip rolled his eyes. Typical! MoNa loved having the last word.

  Kip and Finbar headed for MoNa’s command centre, the Bridge. Here, giant windows looked out to space.

  By now MoNa had piloted herself out of the Hoverport. They’d left Earth’s atmosphere and were heading for deep space.

  Sitting in his captain’s chair, Kip activated his holographic console. A cylinder of blue light appeared around him. MoNa’s controls were projected in mid-air.

  Kip touched the holographic button labelled Download Mission Brief.

  Kip had to pull this mission off. Earth needed him to! And on top of saving humanity, Kip was desperate to win WorldCorp’s top award, the Space Scout Shield of Honour.

  Kip gulped. The mission was mind-bending. Normally, MoNa beamed them to the surface of each new planet. This time, there was no surface! How would he and Finbar land on thin air?

  Kip wasn’t even sure where a gas planet started and stopped. Finbar explained that Jupiter was completely surrounded by cloud. This cloud formed the border between space and the planet itself.

  ‘The wormhole to Vapod is about to open,’ MoNa suddenly chimed.

  Wormholes were extremely useful shortcuts between galaxies. Kip and Finbar could travel the billions of light years between Earth and Vapod in seconds. Kip watched as MoNa piloted towards the swirling mass ahead of them.

  As soon as they were in the wormhole, Kip took over the controls. Wormholes were unpredictable, and needed a skilled human pilot like Kip to fly safely through them.

  Kip held MoNa steady until she popped through the wormhole into Vapod’s galaxy. The bright orange planet lay directly ahead. Kip knew that what looked like a surface was really just cloud. Beyond the cloud was a vast, gassy nothingness.

  Kip took a deep breath as he looked out the window towards Vapod.

  Time to get out there, he thought. Time to save Earth!

  So, thought Kip, how do we get down there?

  ‘There are two CondorCrafts waiting in the landing bay,’ MoNa piped up, as if she’d read his mind.

  Kip had been dying to try a CondorCraft. He’d seen pictures in the Space Scout digital magazine, iScout, which was only available as a download to SpaceCuffs.

  The CondorCrafts were hypersonic space gliders designed to look like condors, giant birds that lived on Earth. Unlike old-fashioned hang-gliders, CondorCraft wings actually flapped. There was a harness and a crossbar for steering underneath the wings. The CondorCrafts would be perfect for getting around on a gas planet.

  Kip and Finbar headed down to the landing bay.

  ‘How do we control these wings?’ Finbar muttered as he and Kip clipped on their harnesses.

  Beneath his fangs and claws, Finbar was teddy-bear soft. The idea of plunging through space in a CondorCraft was his worst nightmare.

  ‘Get into your CondorCraft and my SlingShot Cannon will fire you towards Vapod,’ MoNa explained in her know-it-all voice. ‘When the CondorCraft detects that you’ve entered the atmosphere, its engines will fire and the wings will automatically start flapping.’

  ‘Isn’t that a bit dangerous?’ Finbar whimpered, but Kip was already climbing into the SlingShot Cannon.

  ‘You’ll be fine, Fin!’ Kip called over his shoulder. He settled into the cannon, bracing himself for the ride.

  Kip hurtled through space toward the giant orange planet, impossibly fast. This…is…AWESOME! he thought. It was about a million times better than the BulletCoaster, the fastest and longest rollercoaster on Mars, which Kip had ridden six times in one day last year.

  Then…

  Kip hit the cloud layer of Vapod. The CondorCraft’s wings caught the wind and flapped powerfully.

  Kip looked around and spotted Finbar, who had just entered the cloud layer a little way away. Kip waved, grinning, but Finbar looked a bit sick.

  They steered down through Vapod’s orange cloud layer. By shifting their body-weight, Kip and Finbar could steer up and down, left and right.

  They didn’t pop out the other side of the cloud layer quickly, as they would have on Earth. Vapod’s clouds went on for hundreds of kilometres.

  Eventually the cloud layer thinned. When they finally burst through the other side, Kip gasped.

  Below them lay a breathtaking, gravity-defying floating city. It was built on several metal platforms with long arms. The platforms were suspended below small balloons.

  Those balloons don’t look big enough to hold up huge platforms, Kip thought.

  Kip and Finbar dipped and dived closer. They noticed clear domed buildings on some of the platforms. As Kip watched, a pair of aliens flew out from a nearby dome.

  The aliens were shaped liked stingrays, but instead of the flat bodies that Earth’s stingrays had, these aliens were inflated like balloons. Underneath their billowing tummies were two fat legs.

  Kip noticed something else — the aliens were clutching their heads with their wings.

  Maybe that’s a kind of dance or something in their culture, he thought.

  Before he attempted to make contact with the Vapod aliens, Kip wanted to test the planet’s atmosphere to find out which gases were in it.

  Kip flicked his SpaceCuff on. But just as he was about to open the Air Analyser mode, a plume of smoke belched out of the SpaceCuff.

  ‘Uh-oh,’ Kip said to Finbar through the intercom system inside their helmets. ‘I forgot to fix my SpaceCuff on the way here! Jett’s mum spilled Supernova on it at the party.’

  Suddenly Kip froze. He knew that some gases caught fire super easily. What if they were surrounded by those kinds of gases? A single spark from his SpaceCuff could blow the entire hanging city to smithereens. He switched off the SpaceCuff immediately, but the smoke kept spewing out the side.

  ‘Your Mousse Grenade!’ Kip said to Finbar desperately. ‘Can you reach it?’

  Finbar always kept a Mousse Grenade in his spacesuit pocket in case of fire on board MoNa. Fires were always serious, but even more so on a spaceship.

  Holding on to his CondorCraft with one paw, Finbar grabbed the grenade and pulled the pin. He hurled the grenade at Kip.

  The grenade struck. Sticky white foam exploded over Kip’s wrist.

  Kip’s smoking SpaceCuff was extinguished. Vapod was safe. Kip, on the other hand…

  ‘It won’t stop expanding!’ Kip yelled as the mousse raced up towards his helmet.

  ‘Steer towards the nearest platform!’ Finbar yelped.

  Swiftly, Kip angled his CondorCraft down towards the platform where they’d seen the Vapod aliens. Then his entire world went white. The mousse was swallowing him like a giant man-eating marshmallow.

  Kip was flying completely blind.

  ‘AAAAAAARGH!’ he screamed.

  Kip braced himself.

  He crashed into the platform like a giant sticky sponge.

  Seconds later, Finbar touched down beside him. ‘Are you hurt?’

  Kip shook his head, fighting to free himself from the giant ball of mousse. He finally managed to wipe it all off his helmet, so at least he could see. He checked himself for damage, but everything seemed OK.

  The mission, on the other hand, was anything but OK. Without his SpaceCuff, Kip was in serious trouble. SpaceCuffs were vital — they automatically recorded all kinds of information about the planet you were on.

  On top of the malfunctioning SpaceCuff, Kip didn’t know if Vapod’s aliens were friendly or hostile. And now his CondorCraft was wrecked, Kip didn’t even have his own transport!

  ‘Kip! Look over the there,’ Finbar whispered into his helmet intercom.

  It was the pair of Vapod aliens they’d seen earlier! They were coming towards Kip and Finbar, and they did not look happy.

  I wouldn’t be happy either if a stranger crash-landed on my doorstep, Kip thought.

  Nerves prickled Kip’s skin. He absolutely had to make friends with these aliens. How else would he find out how their ci
ty worked?

  ‘Hello,’ Kip began warmly. ‘We’re from the planet Earth.’

  Kip wished he could use his SpaceCuff to translate into the Vapod language. He wasn’t sure if the aliens understood him. They were definitely shooting him angry looks.

  ‘We…er…mean you no harm,’ Kip continued. He started to tell the Vapods what had happened to him in the sky, acting out the story as best he could and using simple language.

  Both Vapod aliens looked at Kip scornfully.

  ‘We understand your language,’ the first alien snapped. ‘We spent some time near Earth a few years ago.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Kip. ‘Great! That makes my job easier. You see, we need your help.’

  ‘What are you taking about?’ said the Vapod alien irritably. ‘We can’t help you. We have enough problems already.’

  Kip was about to answer, but Finbar beat him to it. He smiled kindly. ‘What kind of problems?’

  ‘Constant headaches,’ the first Vapod alien snapped. ‘That’s what kind.’ Both the aliens rubbed their heads crossly.

  Kip paused, thinking. The Vapod aliens didn’t seem hostile. Maybe their headaches had put them in a permanent bad mood.

  Kip had an idea. ‘My spaceship has a DocBot on board,’ he said. ‘I’d be happy to ask it about remedies for your pain as soon as I’m back up there.’

  The Vapod aliens looked hopeful and suspicious at the same time.

  ‘Why would you do that? What do you want in return?’ the first alien asked.

  Kip explained his mission to find out about the floating city.

  The aliens were willing to help, but there was a problem. They hadn’t built the city personally. About a year ago, a small group of adventurous aliens had discovered this abandoned space research station and moved into it. Before that, they’d been nomadic, which meant they roamed the galaxy with no particular home. That’s why they’d spent time in the Milky Way and learnt some Earth languages.

  ‘We don’t really know the mechanics of the platforms,’ the second Vapod alien said.